Thursday, April 26, 2012

Mold # 48 - 40mm Prince August

Here's a minor conversion I have experimented with for my upcoming Great Northern War project. As with Holger Eriksson's infantry, the Swedish/Karoliner cavalry are well-represented, the Russians not so much. With the exception of a few horse grenadier units, Peter the Great's cavalry were 100% dragoons.

What to do ? First, I have the two new molds "Kropotov Cavalry Man" #'s 1&2 en route from Ireland. They're horse grenadiers which seemingly renders them of limited utility, but the style of the figures (without turnbacks) will suit well and I anticipate being able to make head swaps. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say headgear swaps.

For the meantime, the older (flatter) series Mold # 48, "Cavalry Firing Pistol" has potential, but a few flaws to deal with. First, the sword hilt is very oddly done, a rare mistake by HE if he was indeed the sculptor. It's oversized and badly misaligned with the scabbard. Little can be done about this. Secondly, the pistol casts short for me with the mold in the original configuration. This I have addressed by hollowing out the mold a bit. Thirdly, no carbine or musket - that's a problem if this figure is to be used for a dragoon. Here's an example I painted a couple of years ago.

In the following comparison shot, I have added an extra shoulder belt and converted the turnbacks to a straight coat with green stuff. I have a mold which casts 40mm swords & muskets, cut down the barrel a little and glued this to the figure.

And the final result. Satisfactory, I think. The other good thing about this mold is it gives consistently good casting results for me, something I wish I could say for other PA cavalry molds.

Good point about the mounted figures firing & holding the musket, they make good dragoons. I remember your excellent unit, Saxons were they not ?

Another advantage of those, as PA doesn't have a proper mounted drummer mold, the kettle drummer horse pose matches the above very nicely. I could make the first rank firing and the second at rest. For some reason the latter always casts for me with somewhat dimpled metal but I wouldn't call it a show-stopper.

Dimpled? That's interesting, I thought it was just me. I had trouble with pitting at times with this mold. Not always but it goes in batches and I haven't figured out yet exactly what the problem is, metal temperature crossed with humidity perhaps.

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About Me

My name is Steve Cady. My vocation is manufacturing operations, currently in the medical device industry. But I've been a history buff since childhood and very fond of painting military miniatures. I'm also a big fan of the Daisenryaku video games.